It was our latest Story Cafe today at Preschool.  I chose one of my all time favourites this time - The Tiger who came to Tea by Judith Kerr. I remember reading Judith Kerr's When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit at school - Judith Kerr writes of her own experiences in wartime Germany and an escape from the Nazis.  The Tiger who came to Tea was published in 1968, so it's a bit older than me, but has withstood the test of time.

As usual we have a "communication friendly space" set up for children to play and explore the story while they wait for everyone to arrive.  This time we have all the toy plates, cups and food items, along with some images from the story and some tiger toys. So I read the story to our children and families this morning...  A tiger puppet for the tiger, a china tea cup and saucer for pretending to be sharing tea, and a tin of tiger food, in case the tiger comes back to visit! Then everyone went off to do some making - a set of open-ended resources laid out, and families used their imagination to make some props for the story, to help them re-tell the story at home later.  We made tigers, tiger food, collages, puppets and even a tiger mask. Everyone had a break for some tiger snacks half way through the morning - the theme of "tea" rather than "tigers" - so we had cucumber, little bread and butter triangles and little cubes of cheese! We read the story again at the end, with the children joining in using their props they made, and predicting what they think is going to happen next. Everyone went home with a certificate and a family challenge - "invite" the tiger to tea using the invitation handed out, and talk about what you would have for tea with him, and what you would talk about or ask him.

Story Cafe is a parent partnership initiative, promoting  and encouraging a love of sharing stories and talk with families.  For more about Story Cafe click here.
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